PM is tied on parent leave, say experts

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The Federal Government will be under pressure to give parents
the right to request part-time work after the Industrial Relations
Commission linked the issue to parental leave provisions - one of
five core areas the Government has promised to protect in
legislation - experts say.

Dr Sara Charlesworth, a research fellow at the Centre for
Applied Social Research at RMIT University, Victoria, said the
commission had been far-sighted in making the new right to request
part-time work integral to current parental leave provisions -
covering 26 weeks' unpaid maternity and three weeks' paternity
leave - even though it meant the right was restricted to parents
returning to work after parental leave.

"The Government has committed to maintaining the right to
parental leave, and this linkage may make it more difficult for
them to dismiss the commission's decision out of hand," Dr
Charlesworth said.

In the decision, affecting 1.6 million workers on federal
awards, employers will have a duty to consider requests for up to
two years' unpaid parental leave after the birth of a baby, and for
the primary carer to return to work part-time. As well, fathers
will also have the right to seek up to eight weeks' unpaid leave
after the birth of a baby.

Employers will have the right to refuse requests on "reasonable
grounds", including cost and lack of adequate replacement
staff.

But Dr Charlesworth said in Britain, where similar provisos
apply, only 8 per cent of requests are being turned down.

In Britain all parents of children under six could request a
change in their work hours and work schedules, she said. The more
limited application here was unfortunate in many ways. For a start,
few fathers took parental leave, and therefore would miss out on
the right to request part-time work, she said. But on the other
hand, tying the right to existing parental leave provisions was of
potential "strategic benefit" as the Government stripped back other
award conditions.

Dr John Buchanan, acting director of ACIRRT, a centre for the
study of workplace issues at the University of Sydney, said while
the Government had not spelt out the details of its five statutory
minimum entitlements, it was assumed it would honour the award
standard. "And now the IRC has improved the standard in one of the
core areas Howard thought required statutory protection. The
Government will ignore the recommendation at its peril."

The Prime Minister has described the decision as "a bit
two-bob-each-way" as employers did not have to grant the new rights
unconditionally. He said it reinforced his view that such matters
needed to be dealt with in the workplace.

However, Dr Charlesworth said similar provisions in Britain had
led to changes in the workplace, giving employees a "sense of
entitlement" to make requests, and encouraging employers to
consider requests carefully.

Dr Charlesworth, who is examining discrimination complaints on
parental, carer, and pregnancy grounds, said: "You would be
surprised at the number of employers in Australia who say 'no' to
requests to vary hours. It's not because they are bad people. It's
because it seems too difficult and they have not had to think about
different ways of doing things."